1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, method, and program. More, particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, method, and program capable of selecting information related to predetermined programs, such as programs which are interesting to a user and are current topics of conversation.
2. Description of the Related Art
To date, there have been techniques which analyze matters considered to be current topics on the basis of the number of keywords, etc., included in program information provided as an EPG (Electronic Program Guide), and introduce to users the recorded programs and the programs to be broadcast that match the current topics.
Thus, a user can be provided with, for example the introductions of soccer programs among the recorded programs and the programs to be broadcast during the tournament in which soccer programs are frequently broadcast.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-166961 has disclosed a technique for enabling a user to easily get information on a particular subject by extracting keywords from a plurality of character string data and by selecting information on the basis of the extracted keywords.
However, there is a problem in that subject matters determined only by program information are not necessarily popular topics among general users, because the contents addressed in the program are not selected by the reflection on subjective judgment of an individual, for example “I am interested in certain topics, or certain topics are popular around me”.
In recent years, bulletin boards on which users write their opinions, Weblogs (so-called Blogs) which attract people's attention as a tool for dispatching personal information, etc., have become widespread. Although some topics are not addressed in programs, those topics are often very popular among a certain bulletin board or Blog.
If the programs are selected in accordance with the matters taken up on a bulletin board or a Weblog, or the matters taken up in news delivered at a portal site, and those programs can be presented to a user, it becomes possible to introduce programs that are not dependent on program organizations. Also, if the headlines of news, etc., are displayed along with the programs to be introduced at that time, the user can select whether to view the introduced program while seeing those headlines.